Catch-up Session – Week No. 24

Monday, June 15, 2009, the day Motors Inside offers you an article summarizing the past week. The highlights of F1 news from Monday, June 7 to Sunday, June 14 are in this article. On the agenda this week is the highly anticipated decision by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) regarding the teams participating in the 2010 championship. Are there surprises or not? In any case, one thing is certain, everything remains to be done for the majority of the teams… This decision is coupled with another announcement, that of the return of engine manufacturer Cosworth to Formula 1. To know everything about this development, the reactions of the main teams will also be available. Finally, the FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) revealed at the beginning of last week that they want to simply abandon KERS in 2010.

13 teams announced but only five certain…

Friday, June 12, it’s noon, the time when the FIA reveals the names of the 13 teams authorized to participate in the next championship. In the days leading up to this announcement, tension was palpable between the governing body and the eight members of the FOTA since Williams and Force India decided to go their own way. Consequently, the Franck Williams team from Grove and the Indian team of Mallya are accepted unconditionally for 2010. According to the FIA, Ferrari, Red Bull, and Toro Rosso are also authorized to line up at the 2010 starting grid by virtue of agreements with Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM. However, these three teams will not side with the FIA and prefer to stand behind the remaining five teams: McLaren, Brawn GP, Renault, BMW, and Toyota. These five teams are conditionally accepted by the FIA to participate in the 2010 championship. They simply need to lift their conditions regarding the FIA regulations for the official announcement of their presence. These five teams thus have a week, until Friday, to comply or not with the governing body’s request. Everything is at stake this week since, in the event of failed negotiations, the withdrawal of one to eight current teams is in question. Finally, the only rays of sunshine in this troubled universe are the arrival of three teams unknown to this sport. These are Campos GP, USF1, and Manor F1, which have met all the conditions for unconditional acceptance. Long live these three teams!

Read the announcement of the 13 teams selected by the FIA for 2010

Reactions from the main teams

To be completely thorough about this FIA announcement, each team has issued a statement to convey either happiness or, on the contrary, disappointment.

Read the reactions of Ferrari, Red Bull, and Toro Rosso

Read the reactions of Campos GP and USF1

Read the reactions of Team Lotus, Lola, and Epsilon

Read Prodrive’s reaction

Read the reaction of Superfund

The Return of Cosworth to Formula 1

Since 2006, this engine manufacturer had disappeared from the ranks of the top category of motorsport, but its return has been announced: Cosworth will supply engines at reduced costs to three teams in 2010. These teams are the three new entries, Campos GP, Manor GP and USF1. A source of satisfaction for Cosworth, which will line up alongside prestigious engine manufacturers like Mercedes and Ferrari.

Read the announcement of Cosworth’s return to Formula 1

The KERS, three little spins and then it’s gone?

The FOTA seems very busy this late spring as, alongside its discussions with the FIA, it is also working for 2010 but from a more technical standpoint. Thus, the organization wishes to abandon the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) project for the upcoming season. As a reminder, in 2009 only teams that wish to can use the device. McLaren and Ferrari are the two teams that use it the most. Renault and BMW are much more cautious about KERS and employ it very occasionally.

Read the announcement of the FOTA wishing to abandon the development of KERS